Athletes and experts in peak performance understand very well the concept of “tapering” – a significant reduction in training load in the days before a competition which is, paradoxically, thought to have the effect of optimising performance. This often involves

A large aspect of an orchestral wind player’s life can involve playing auxiliary instruments – instruments that you learn alongside your main instrument, for example the bass clarinet, cor anglais, piccolo or contrabassoon. Not everyone specialises on auxiliary instruments: firstly,

It starts quietly, a haunting nostalgic hymn-like sequence of gentle chords in both hands. A few bars in, the bass accompaniment changes into a gently undulating pattern of broken fourths, anchored by a low F. In this opening section, Glass

OzymandiasPercy Bysshe Shelly I met a traveler from an antique land,Who said—-“Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. … Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinked lip, and sneer

“The purpose of music is to communicate from the heart to the heart” He has been called “one of the most refined and transcendent musicians the United States has ever produced.” But Leon Fleisher (1928-2020), who died of cancer at

nounMusicnoun: fermata; plural noun: fermatas – a pause of unspecified length on a note or rest– a sign indicating a prolonged note or rest John Cage’s 4’33” may be the most infamous example of the use of silence in music

When four music graduates of Cambridge get together, you never expect the expected. Singer and co-director Héloïse Werner, clarinetist Oliver Pashley, harpist Anne Denholm, and double-bassist Marianne Schofield got together after graduation to create The Hermes Experiment. Shortly after they

No one really knows what Les Barricades Mystérieuses actually means. The title literally translates from the French as “the mysterious barricades” but it gives little clue. It could refer to masks – or masques, a form of courtly entertainment –